LEV Neon: "We have to be together as a team"

LEVIATÁN suffered its second series loss of VCT Americas Stage 2 on Friday, August 28, falling to 100 Thieves and missing the chance to secure an immediate spot in the playoffs in Brazil. The Argentine organization will still have another opportunity through the lower bracket, keeping alive its chances of playing the final stage of the competition in front of the Brazilian crowd.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Bruno “Neon” Rodríguez discussed what went wrong against 100 Thieves, the adjustments LEVIATÁN needs to make for its next series, and the motivation of potentially playing in Brazil. The player also talked about the team’s evolving compositions, the return of Yoru to the meta, the departure of Breeze from the map pool, and his approach to the upcoming opponent.

Bruno “Neon” Rodríguez: “What we were missing the most was creating plays and plans. We were thinking too much about what they were doing instead of what they weren't going to do. We were missing that and trying to just go into the rounds 100% to win. Sometimes we felt too rushed because of the result or things like that. For example, if something went wrong, we had to keep trying in the same round. If something happened there, then we had to do something else here. We were missing more of that.

Neon: I don't think we're too worried, actually. We don't think too much about what happened today. We don't get sad about it; we just have to improve the mistakes we made and try to come out more focused next time, in every round. We have to be together as a team and things like that. That was missing a little bit today, so we need to bring that into the next matches.

Neon: Going there motivates us a lot because we're playing at home. It's something really good for us, being able to have all our families and everyone who supports us there in the crowd, playing on stage for them to watch, everyone screaming for us, and us screaming like Sato (Eduardo Sato) and jumping around. That's really funny. It’s just motivation for us.

Neon: I don't think there's much of an alert. In every match we play, we try to do different things. We don't always do the same thing, and we have a lot of reads within the game. We have a lot of things we can do and things that we see very well. Today it just didn't work out for us. We couldn't really impact the game as a team or individually. We didn't have much individual firepower or collective firepower, but those things happen. VALORANT is a game with a lot of variance. Sometimes something will go well, sometimes something else will go badly. The most important thing is to reset because we know that for the next matches we're going to bring a better version of ourselves for everyone.

Neon: It was already a comfort pick for us, both for me and Sato. We played it a lot before, in previous competitions, a long time ago. So it was something that was comfortable for us. The factor that helped a lot was the buff to the agent, the extra second on the teleport. That's why I think we're seeing a lot more Yoru, and everyone will try to bring Yoru into other competitions, on other maps and things like that, because you can do a lot of things with the agent. He's a very good agent, and it's also a way to keep changing things instead of always doing the same thing.

Neon: I think so. Obviously, all teams have to keep changing things because when you play against a lot of teams, they already start to know what you do. It's not really a rule for us; it's a rule for any team. If you have more camps, more matches, more of everything, you have to change your way of playing a little bit within the game.

Neon: The rotation is obviously very positive for us. Obviously, we didn't like Breeze very much anymore. We were just losing on that map, so when Breeze left, we were very happy because we were already going to remove one ban. We could ban other things and things like that. So we already had a better pool, but we still have to keep working on Abyss, obviously on every map, because if we want to qualify, we have to give 100% on any map and bring better things to all of them.

Neon: Honestly, it's not that I don't want to face them; I just don't know what to say. Because for me they're both the same. They're both good teams. I don't think too much about the opponent I have. I just think about what my team and I have to improve so that, against any team we play, we can play well. Obviously, every team that has made it this far is a good team. So I don't have a specific preference.”